Business owner diaries: Caroo

Peninsula supports over 44,000 successful UK businesses. And we want to give them a platform to share their success with you.

So, meet Gareth Peterson, managing director at a hiring & recruitment tech platform, Caroo. Heading up the fast-growing start-up since 2020, he’s already snapped up major clients like Adidas.

As a recruitment specialist, Gareth has lots of tips for employers like you. We chatted to him to learn more about his business and get insider advice…

Tell us about your business…

“So Caroo is a technology business, providing UK SME’s with a smarter, cheaper way to hire talent direct, without huge recruitment agency fees.

Primarily what our platform does is, is use an algorithm to match employers’ jobs to candidates based on skills and experience, not just a job title. We then have a managed service team to support with the recruitment process, saving employers time and between 60-90% of the cost versus traditional recruitment agencies.

Because of the tech we use and our approach to talent acquisition, we pass on huge savings to our community of growing tech, digital, and marketing SMEs.”

What makes Caroo different?

“It's very targeted as opposed to being volume driven. So, employers on our platform get fewer applications, but applications that are far more qualified on the basis of a matching algorithm, and therefore won’t waste their time like a traditional job board might. ”

From your experience, what can employers do to attract more applicants?

“First of all, you want to make sure that you are producing quality employer branding content.

This could be small headshot videos explaining the company culture, the benefits, the team that you are working with. Things like that are really nice pieces of information and resources to share.

People, after they find a job they like, will have a look at the company. So, making sure that your social media channels have information relating to the business, the customers, your testimonials, what it's like to work there… this is really underrated.”

What should employers include on their job adverts?

“Salary is essential.

One, because it reflects well on your brand by being open and transparent. And two, it saves everybody's time. For example, I wouldn’t apply for a role that's 50K above what I’m looking for.

Also, if I'm judging it on the base of a job title, like a generic marketing manager role, then I'm going to apply for that because it says competitive, but you've not dictated the level of seniority. So showing that job title acts as an immediate filter for candidates.

I also think you've got to make them authentic. You've got to be accurate in the daily responsibilities because so many people quit on the basis of being mis-sold the job. Otherwise, you will be inundated with irrelevant applications – this is one of the reasons we built the Caroo platform.

And one thing that people often don't include in their job descriptions is: what's the recruitment process? Too often, we expect people to go into this blind and actually not know the level of personal investment that goes into it.

The whole process can take up to three or four weeks. So, if you can include that sort of detail in your job description then you're setting expectations for the candidate, which just bodes well for you as a business.”

Discover Caroo’s guides to learn more:

• Employers looking for sales and marketing talent for helpful tips on job descriptions, interview processes, and more. 
• How to hire the best tech and software talent

And lastly, why do you outsource your HR to Peninsula?

“As managing director, I have various responsibilities. But when it came to HR, I didn't have all of the time to invest in being an expert in that field.

It's invaluable to a start-up because, clearly, we can't afford to implement a HR function due to budget constraints and secondly, time is a constraint itself.

So the fact that you can take that time constraint away from me but also educate me, to be a better leader, and to make sure that everything's done in a fair way.

The advice is comprehensive, thorough, and understandable.

There's no jargon in there. It's all very clear, I understand where I stand in terms of documentation, in terms of the processes I need to take. It means I always go into meetings feeling confident.”